Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill writes a politics column Tuesdays in 24 Hours newspaper and The Tyee online magazine.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

Sall admitted to six violations of the Elections Act in a guilty plea bargain deal that saw serious Criminal Code obstruction of justice charges dropped that could have seen him sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.

UPDATE #1 - And in a new development tonight, CBC TV is reporting that Sall told them up to $40,000 in additional elections expenses were unreported to Elections BC. In an exclusive interview with CBC, Sall says: "I have accepted full responsibility for my actions and errors. But I did not act alone."

Heed's lawyer David Gruber denies Sall's charges, CBC reports.

UPDATE #2 - The South Asian Link Newspaper is reporting it has obtained copies of emails allegedly between Heed and Sall that have Heed: "demonizing everyone from Liberal MLA Mary McNeil to former police chief Jamie Graham and former fellow VPD colleague Jim Chu" but it has not published those emails. The Link also reports that Sall makes claims in an exclusive interview about the $6,000 paid to Sall and campaign worker Sameer Ismail from government constituency office funds after the election.

The charges came after Heed's campaign printed and distributed a vicious and inaccurate leaflet trashing the NDP but didn't report the costs - which exceeded election spending limits. Sall and Khanna also admitted they lied to RCMP and Elections BC investigators when contacted about the leaflet and other expenses.

Heed was never charged with any offences but admitted to overspending and was fined $8,000 but allowed to keep the Vancouver-Fraserview seat he narrowly won over NDP opponent Gabriel Yiu by less than 800 votes.

UPDATE #3 - Oct 31 - NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu has requested Elections BC start a new investigation into the Kash Heed 2009 election expenses based on media reports from the CBC and the allegations of Barinder Sall that up to $40,000 in election spending was not accounted for. And the Vancouver Sun has a front page story today repeating Sall's allegations and detailing Sall's long relationship as an advisor to Heed. Yiu's full letter to Elections BC is at the bottom of this story.

Co-accused Dinesh Khanna, owner of the mailing firm that distributed the leaflet, was fined $6,000, put on probation for 90 days and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service after pleading guilty to three Election Act violations.

But no explanation was made in any of the proceedings about two cheques worth a total of $6,000 paid to Sall and campaign worker Sameer Ismail from Heed's government funded consituency association account a month after the election campaign. Heed signed both cheques, $4,000 to Sall and $2,000 to Ismail, with his lawyer David Gruber telling 24 hours newspaper that Heed "understood the cheques to be for services rendered to the constituency office."

Judge Joe Galati told Sall and Khanna that: "That they should consider themselves fortunate in the outcome of this case. Both of them, but especially Mr. Sall, had taken actions to circumvent the laws." But Galati said he took into account that both men had no criminal record, showed remorse, were of past good character and had pled guilty, making a three week trial unnecessary.

Yiu said outside Provincial Court in Vancouver that he was "very disappointed in the sentence" while NDP MLA Bruce Ralston said the case leaves Heed's legitimacy as an MLA in doubt.

"The laws were broken outrageously," Ralston said. "Voters must be asking themselves if it was a fair election."

Yiu was even more critical about the whole situation.

"This is a sad precedent for democracy in BC - will the RCMP actually spend the time to investigate Election Act violations in the future?"

In Court, Special Prosecutor Peter Wilson outline the details of the plea bargain and how Crown and defence counsel had agreed to a Statement of Facts in the case.

The charges came after a complaint from the NDP when a Chinese-language leaflet appeared in the riding falsely claiming that the party would legalize cocaine, heroin and prostitution as well introduce a "death tax".

The statement of facts also says Sall arranged for $5,900 worth of radio advertising on Fairchild and AM 1320 - Chinese radio stations - and disguised the expenditure as third party advertising by two persons who did not sponsor the ad. Sall paid for the ads through his business.

Sall's lawyer Richard Peck made a lengthy statement about the significant negative impact the charges had on Sall's reputation and ability to earn a living.

"This has been terribly depressing for him. He was on the cusp of signing a very significant consulting contract when this broke - he did not get the contract. He has not been employed since April 2010, has incurred substantial debt, spent his life saving and some of his RRSPs and has been shunned by organizations he was involved with," Peck said.

Wilson agreed in his summation, explaining in part why he agreed to the sentencing deal.

"Mr. Sall has become a pariah in the community," Wilson said.

Khanna's lawyer David Unterman also said his client, owner of North American Mailing, has suffered since the events of May 2009.

"His business has become terrible as a result," Unterman said, noting that Khanna was "relatively unsophisticated with regard to the Elections Act."

As a candidate who participated in the 2009 provincial election in Vancouver-Fraserview, I am writing to make a formal request for a new investigation into the supplementary report filed with Elections BC by the BC Liberal Party candidate Kash Heed on September 28, 2011.

On October 28, Kash Heed's campaign manager Barinder Sall revealed on CBC TV news , that the campaign he managed in 2009 exceeded the statutory spending limit by some $40,000, seven times the amount ($5,578.90) which Heed had declared in his recently filed supplementary report.

As you may be aware, Special Prosecutor Peter Wilson concluded and released his investigation report on April 2011 into Heed’s campaign report filed on August 7, 2009, while Chief Justice Bauman delivered his judgment on August 31, 2011.

Based on the serious allegations made by Sall, and on other information I have obtained through various sources, I respectfully submit that there are reasonable grounds to question the truthfulness of the supplementary report filed by Kash Heed on September 28 with Elections BC.

According to the Elections Act, Section 226, filing a false or misleading report is a serious offence, on commission of which “the member ceases to hold office and the seat of the member becomes vacant.”

In order to uphold public confidence in the integrity of our democratic system, I hereby request that Elections BC launch a new investigation into the supplementary report recently filed by Kash Heed.

Ohhh Boohoo. We must not stress the criminals out, because they steal from us. Didn't Kash Heed loan Sall his special prosecutor.

Campbell's theft and corrupt sale of the BCR trial. The two patsies that took the fall for Campbell, had their legal fees paid for them out of our tax dollars I mean to say, the BC people pay politicians to steal from us. Why is Sall different? He worked for Heed.

This is an excellent example of why millions of people around the world are marching in the streets in the "Occupy" movement. We are fed up with our politicians and courts providing one level of justice to the 1% and a totally different one for everyone else.

Taking a fraction of the money stolen by a thief as a fine if they are caught is hardly a deterrent to them doing it again. Meanwhile plans to increase penalties when a working person is caught smoking a joint after work are under way...

Well, another interesting article and this typist must agree with the comments. Is there no end to the liberals problems. New ones keep appearing everyday. Thirty million to a mining company. Is that any way to spent tax money. Perhaps the liberal party should have to pay for so many political waste of tax money. The Public and other liberals including the MLA s must be insulted. I am.

Plead ignorance of the law?You can't plead ignorance,ignorance is no defense period......not for the 1%anyway,you get it know?you know the guy's on the front lawn of the VAG,maybe we should all join them hey bill good,this is just one of the reasons those young heroes are down on the lawn,your fat ass wants removed forcibly,maybe they should remove your ass from the propaganda pumping dog station,and ain't no top dog either,the only thing it's on top of is the people it screw's,oh wait a minute the old timers that still believe that bile your spewing,good riddance that the only time good should be used after bill!

Gabriel Yiu (NDP) is a popular TV personality in the Chinese community, which is the majority in the riding in which he sought a seat. The Defamation was decisive in securing Heed's victory. The other factor was: NDP refusal to make Heed's $40,000 payoff from West Vancouver, after he quit the RCMP. I wonder which party WVan councillors support? Social media committed serious sins of omission on this issue. And where was ex-Vancouver police employee (MLA Jenny Kwan) on this issue?

In a September e-mail to the protocol officer in charge of this year’s Order of B.C. ceremony, Mr. Campbell asked: “When is it appropriate for me to use the OBC designation?”

He was told: “In British Columbia … the common practice is that the postnominals are used after the investiture ceremony has taken place. However, technically, there is nothing wrong with using the designation immediately.”

So, Mr. Campbell is technically a member of the Order of B.C., but he has not yet been invested. He has been invited to next year’s ceremony, however, to pick up his medal.

The MSM is just awaiting orders from their bosses back East as to how or how not to cover the story. Remember how they hounded Glen Clark out of office on the Casino scandal and then shut off the 'Gordo drunk driving story" after just a few days. I dont watch or read the news media anymore as they just are a right wing joke.

The MSM is just awaiting orders from their bosses back East as to how or how not to cover the story. Remember how they hounded Glen Clark out of office on the Casino scandal and then shut off the 'Gordo drunk driving story" after just a few days. I dont watch or read the news media anymore as they just are a right wing joke.

Typical response. Wait until the MSM starts diging out the NDP once they are in government.

Glen Clark was the carrier of his own errors. No one to blame but him.

“This was an error in judgment that I paid a significant price to learn from,” Barinder Sall complained. “But I did not do this alone — I worked very closely with the former solicitor-general Kash Heed.”

The rise and fall of Kash Heed’s political operativeby Ian Mulgrew, The Vancouver Sun

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.